Farnborough 2012: Close up view of the mysterious F-35’s multimission pod.

Interesting new pod for the F-35 on display at FIA12.

I was visiting the booth of Terma, a Danish firm, at Farnborough International Airshow 2012 last day, when I stumbled upon an interesting “F-35 Multi Mission Pod”.

The F-35 pod is a full monocoque composite structure in carbon fiber that can be used to expand the JSF’s special mission capabilities, by allowing the plane to fly “Next Generation EW and ISR systems, such as Jammers and EO sensors” as well as an external cannon.

Here’s a shot I took of the pod:

Since, it was engineered and flown in February 2012 I wonder whether it actually contained a 25 mm cannon (as Naval Air Systems Command affirmed at the time) when it appeared underneath the F-35 for the first time on Feb. 22, 2012.

More from The Aviationist

Testing

Helicopters

U.S. Navy Tests Sonobuoy Deployment from CH-53E Super Stallion Helicopter

Military Aviation

Ellsworth’s B-1B Lancers Practice Long-Range Strikes with JASSMs in Full-Scale Readiness Exercise Raider Reach

Taiwan

Taiwan Receives First Batch of U.S. Harpoon Block II Anti-Ship Missiles

Gaza

[Live Updating] Iran Has Launched A Massive Ballistic Missile Attack On Israel

Indeed, I can’t see any clear sign of a barrel coming out of it in the images available so far. But it may use a new system I don’t know yet…

Anyway, here below you get a back view of the pod.

Related Articles

• Farnborough 2012: This is the most advanced flight helmet, ever. The F-35′s Helmet Mounted Display System (theaviationist.com)
• Photo: F-35B Joint Strike Fighter test aircraft doing aileron roll with asymmetric weapons load (theaviationist.com)